It’s always amusing to see which traditional liberals have been pushed too far by leftists. Not that this is the first time Alan Dershowitz has strayed (see Alan Dershowitz Throws Down on Idiots Who Blame Terrorism on Poverty… and WATCH: Alan Dershowitz Face-Stomps Obama Over Anti-Israel Resolution). It is, however, the most blunt he’s been about it. I’m not worried about a few dozen people with swastikas who want to replace the Jews, because they’re our past. They have no resonance on university campuses today. But the hard, hard left? Anti-Semitism, anti-Christianity, intolerance for speech. It’s the future. These are...

A week after an Oklahoma university refused to let a popular Christian speaker give a presentation on creation on campus, the school has had a sudden change of heart after facing a firestorm of controversy over its initial decision. Ken Ham, the founder of the Creation Museum and Ark Encounter attractions, was scheduled to give a speech next month at the University of Central Oklahoma entitled "Genesis and the State of the Culture." School officials rescinded his invitation after facing pressure from an LGBT group on campus opposing Ham's March 5 appearance. Now, it seems like the event is back...

In a 1989 article in New Republic, Andrew Sullivan made what he called "a (conservative) case for gay marriage." Today same-sex marriage is legal everywhere in America, supported by majorities of voters and accepted as a part of American life. Now Sullivan has cast his gaze on what he regards as a disturbing aspect of American life -- the extension of speech suppression and "identity politics" from colleges and universities into the larger society. The hothouse plants of campus mores have become invasive species undermining and crowding out the beneficent flora of the larger free democratic society. Sullivan can be...

“Anthropology 212: Cultural Freedoms: Hate Speech, Blasphemy, and Pornography,” a course on freedom of expression at Princeton University has been “reluctantly” cancelled, Professor Lawrence Rosen informed his students in an email obtained by THE WEEKLY STANDARD. Rosen’s email, sent at 2:07 p.m. on February 12, went on to say “I think it only fair that you be free, before too much of the semester has passed, to move ahead in another course of your choosing.” Last week Prof. Rosen received national attention for using the N-word in this class on freedom of expression. Some students walked out and protested the...

Jenye “Viki” Knox served Union High School since 2000 as a teacher and faculty adviser for the students’ Bible study group. She began teaching handicapped students 28 years ago. An ordained minister, Knox communicated her opinion openly on social media. In 2013, Knox sued the district for violating her right to free speech and her right to the free expression of her religion. She wanted her job back with back pay and the admission that she was within her rights under the Constitution to express her views on Facebook. The American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey admitted that though...

The free speech wars are getting worse, but it seems that none of the warring factions quite grasp the character of the dispute — or precisely what's at stake. At the figurative center of the clash is the norm of near-absolute freedom of speech and expression, which its defenders like to treat as the American default. A number of ideological challenges have arisen in recent years to overturn this norm. On many college campuses, groups of left-leaning students insist that free speech should be conditional on speakers adhering to explicit standards of diversity and avoiding the infliction of emotional harm...

Paying union dues and baking a wedding cake may not seem like classic examples of free speech—except perhaps at the Supreme Court. This year, the high court is poised to announce its most significant expansion of the 1st Amendment since the Citizens United decision in 2010, which struck down laws that limited campaign spending by corporations, unions and the very wealthy.

On January 23, days before Armando Iannucci's new comedy “The Death of Stalin" was due to premiere in Russia, the Culture Ministry revoked the film’s distribution license. Hours before, the movie was screened for a group state officials who roundly criticized it as a mockery of Soviet history. Human rights activists in Syktyvkar have filed a lawsuit challenging the Culture Ministry’s decision to revoke the distribution license... Why sue in Syktyvkar? The region was tightly integrated with the Soviet Gulag, meaning that nearly every family with local roots dating back a few generations suffered directly because of Stalinism. The activists...

As you have probably already noticed, Facebook is going through dramatic changes. Now, they are about to roll out massive updates to its newsfeed that will dramatically change the type of content you see Facebook is going to focus on your nexus of family and friends, in addition to a list of what they label “trusted sources.” Those “trusted sources” aren’t based on what you trust, but what they trust. They claim the pages will be based on “diverse and representative” criteria determined by sample pools of Facebook users. But no one – except Facebook itself – knows just what...

A Georgia State University soccer player who was suspended from the team after she used a racial epithet on social media has withdrawn from the school, officials said. Some students had called for the expulsion of 18-year-old freshman defender Natalia Martinez after the epithet appeared on her Finsta page, a secret version of Instagram that is growing in popularity among teens. “As a progressive, diverse university, we ... feel like this sort of behavior should not be tolerated,” said India Bridgeforth, who created a petition demanding the university take a tougher approach with Martinez. The petition had garnered more than...

<p>Laving signs heralding free speech and chanting "Stand by Deyshia," about 100 people gathered in a light rain Thursday to rally to support Deyshia Hargrave -- the Louisiana teacher ejected from a school board meeting and roughly handcuffed in a video-recorded arrest after she questioned her superintendent's pay raise.</p>

Police have arrested more than 3,400 people for ‘offensive’ online comments in one year an investigation by The Times has revealed. Figures obtained through the Freedom of Information Act has revealed that political police chiefs have been spending taxpayers’ money on arresting internet trolls under section 127 of the Communications Act 2003, which makes it illegal to intentionally “cause annoyance, inconvenience or needless anxiety to another” introduced in 2016. Given that thirteen police forces have refused to submit the figures of their arrests of internet commentators, the total number of politically motivated harassment and arrest by police is certain to...

Free speech has been faring poorly on American college campuses. Many students don’t believe in it at all (a point I examined recently in this piece), and many administrators believe they can restrict it to small areas and only with their prior approval. The trustees and top officials at the University of Massachusetts (UMass) are in that group. For the system’s flagship campus at Amherst, the officials have decreed a policy that places student First Amendment rights in a straightjacket. Free speech and rallies may only be held on a small plot of land (less than one percent of the...

The court determined that Antifa leader Yvette Felarca's legal claim "was not brought in good faith." Hayward, CA – Antifa leader and middle school teacher Yvette Felarca was ordered to pay over $11,000 in damages to former Berkeley College Republicans President Troy Worden on Thursday, following an Alameda County Superior Court ruling. Felarca, a national organizer for antifa-aligned group By Any Means Necessary (BAMN), filed a civil harassment restraining order against Worden in September, 2017, and alleged that he stalked her by appearing at BAMN events, the San Francisco Gate reported. BAMN also led protests against conservative speakers who came...

Free speech, the driving principle of the American experiment in how free men govern themselves, is a principle that does not always travel well. Free speech requires constant defense and the careful attention of loving hands. Mere lip service won’t do it. Americans are armed with the First Amendment, the most important amendment of all, and it does not guarantee polite or even responsible speech, but free speech. The humblest citizen is entitled to say whatever he pleases. He can expect to pay the consequences of irresponsible speech, but the government can’t stop him from saying it. Certain politicians even...

The government's theory would equally criminalize insulting posts on a NRA page, or on a pro-Trump organization's page, or on a Communist Party page. In September 2016, Mark Feigin posted five insulting comments on the Islamic Center of Southern California's Facebook page (before he was finally blocked by the ICSC from commenting): • "THE TERROR HIKE ... SOUNDS LIKE FUN" (written in response to the Center's "Sunset Hike" announcement). • "THE MORE MUSLIMS WE ALLOW INTO AMERICA THE MORE TERROR WE WILL SEE." • "PRACTICING ISLAM CAN SLOW OR EVEN REVERSE THE PROCESS OF HUMAN EVOLUTION." • "Islam is dangerous...

It was apparently the Holy Grail of the left’s dream narrative , a white right wing terrorist with hordes of guns stopped in the nick of time from committing a mosque massacre by a bold black Democrat heroine! The way the facts seemed to fit the leftist template was so compelling that any Democrat party apparatchik would have jumped on the chance . Hard core Democrat/Socialist Kamela Harris was no exception. A fellow calls a mosque and makes threats. A mosque member following up on some anti-Islamic Facebook posts calls the Facebook man and thinks the voice is similar to the...

Larry Abramson, Dean of the University of Montana (UM) School of Journalism, has irreparably harmed the reputation of his school. With its 93% acceptance rate, UM has never been a selective university with a stellar reputation. Nonetheless, Abramsonâ€™s decision to reject my selection as the keynote for 10th annual Jeff Cole Distinguished Lecture Series has backfired and badly embarrassed the institution. To make matters worse, UM President Sheila Stearns has missed a golden opportunity to mitigate the damage by responding with an unequivocal defense of free speech.Those needing additional background information on the controversy can read my column â€śGrizzly Bigotry...

California has leveled misdemeanor charges against 41-year-old Mark Feigin after he sent five anti-Muslim posts to the Islamic Center of Southern California’s (ICSC) Facebook page in 2016. The California Attorney General’s office argues that his comments constituted “repeated contact by means of an electronic communication device” with “intent to annoy or harass,” a misdemeanor under California law...

Semester after semester, year after year, tensions on college campuses have escalated, with intolerance of dissent climbing to darkly censorious levels. Facing Trump-fueled rage and censorship from campus leftists, conservative students reacted by bringing in the most offensive speakers possible, such as Milo Yiannopoulos. At the University of California, Berkeley, this rhetorical bomb thrower's opponents lit real fires and smashed the place. Then at Middlebury College in March, protesters against Charles Murray, the conservative social scientist, disrupted his event so that he simply could not speak. They did not want debate. He was obliged to give his address on video...